Rainbow Wahine tough out a win

The Hawaii women’s basketball team was in a close, grind-it-out game against Cal State Fullerton on Thursday and looking for that one spurt to turn things in its favor.

The Rainbow Wahine found it in the third quarter.

Lahni Salanoa scored a career-high 19 points and Hawaii went on a 13-0 run in the third to beat Fullerton 60-50 at the Sheriff Center.

Five Rainbow Wahine scored during the rally, including five points from Salanoa and a 3-pointer by Julissa Tago, as they took a 39-28 advantage with 2:26 left in the quarter.

“We had some turnovers on defense and we got some boards and we can run the floor,” Hawaii coach Laura Beeman said. “When we make good decisions in our transition offense it definitely helps our overall offense.”

Salanoa said: “Our energy was up. We had more energy than in the first half. We had to attack in the second half and everyone caught on.”

Cal State Fullerton got within six points on two occasions, including 52-46 after a layup by Jordan Jackson with 2:21 remaining, but Hawaii made eight of 10 free-throw attempts the rest of the way seal it. It was a far cry from the first half, when the Rainbow Wahine went just 2-for-7 from the line.

“We had enough misses in the first half, right?” Beeman said. “We got to the free-throw line, and when you have a good rhythm and good energy and you’re clicking on defense and you’re getting good looks at the basket offensively, going to the free-throw line is easy.”

Salanoa finished 6-for-13 from the field and 5-for-7 from the line.

“Any given night, we’re going to have different players score,” Beeman said. “Lahni is probably the toughest matchup for a lot of our opponents because she can post them up if they’re small, she can bring them out to the perimeter if they’re bigger and go by them.”

Briana Harris added 14 points for the Wahine (5-10, 1-2 Big West), who tied a season low with 12 turnovers.

“This was a big win. We needed this win,” Salanoa said. “The last two practices we had, we were going at it and competing. Everybody’s energy was up the last two practices and we needed to bring it on the court to the game.”

The Titans (3-13, 0-3) finished 0-for-15 from 3-point range. They made 21 field goals and committed 21 turnovers.

“I thought we did a really nice job defensively, mixing it up tonight,” Beeman said. “I think our on-ball pressure has been better than it’s been. Mixing it up between man and zone and some different trapping looks really kept them (off balance).”